Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday refused to stay the state government’s Ordinance No. 2 of 2018, which brought down reservation for Backward Classes in the gram panchayat elections to 22.80 per cent, in keeping with a Supreme Court direction that all reservations together be capped at 50 per cent.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice A. Rajasekar Reddy heard the petition of R. Krishnaiah, former MLA and state BC leaders, Jajula Srinivasa Goud and U. Sambasiva Rao, seeking suspension of the operation of the Telangana Ordinance No.2 of 2018, and also a stay on holding elections to Gram Panchayats in the state.
The bench dismissed the interim application of the petitioners seeking suspension of the Ordinance. Stating that there was no constitutional compulsion in providing reservations to BCs, the bench said there is constitutional permissibility through Article 243D for the state to make a law that abridges reservations.
Senior counsel for the petitioners, K.G. Krishna Murthy, submitted that in spite of the High Court’s directions, the state government has failed to hold an enumeration of the BC population in the state. It ought to have once again collected empirical data and justified the provisions of the Panchayat Raj Act, and further, it is the duty of the government to provide reservation to BCs in proportion to their population.
He said that in local body elections conducted in 2013 and earlier, reservation quota for BCs was 34 per cent, and it was the same under the new Panchayat Raj Act of the state. He said that the state has brought down reservations to 22.78 per cent from 34 per cent under the guise of Supreme Court directions.
Intervening in the submissions of the counsel, the bench observed orally that, “Though the petitioners are satisfied with the 34 per cent reservation, the question is whether there is any Constitutional compulsion on the state to continue the 34 per cent reservation to the BCs or not. There is no constitutional eligibility of reservation for the BCs, but it is only the constitutional permissibility for the state to make a law with a view to abridge the reservations.”
The bench said that it would not stall the election process after the notification was issued, and it directed the state to file a detailed counter affidavit within four weeks.
